Gubernatorial Candidates Court Senior Citizens' Votes

September 28, 1994|By MICHELE JACKLIN; Courant Political Writer

MERIDEN — A day after Republican gubernatorial candidate John G. Rowland backed off plans to abolish Connecticut's inheritance tax, he was talking tough, telling senior citizens Tuesday that repeal of the tax is necessary to halt the migration of residents to Sun Belt states.

``Frankly, if we wipe out the inheritance tax, we will have more revenue in the coffers because people in the state will pay more taxes. There's no reason to see a six-month and one-day march to Florida,'' Rowland said, referring to the time it takes to establish residence.

Rowland delivered his remarks at the state legislative convention of the American Association of Retired Persons, where about 220 members heard from three of Connecticut's gubernatorial contenders. A fourth -- Independent Tom Scott -- arrived too late to speak, but mingled with conventiongoers over coffee and pastries around the indoor pool of the Ramada Inn.

Despite the association's endorsement of the state income tax in 1991, the year of its adoption, Scott said Tuesday he is confident his message of repeal -- the linchpin of his campaign -- has struck a chord with elderly residents.

``I reject the notion that the leaders of the AARP reflect the views of its membership,'' Scott said. ``It's not a monolithic group.''

But promises of painless tax cuts failed to impress one elderly activist, Philip Susag of Manchester, who praised Lt. Gov. Eunice S. Groark, the nominee of A Connecticut Party, for saying that radical changes in state fiscal policy are not only unrealistic, but foolhardy.

``The only honest person here was Eunice Groark,'' said Susag. ``She addressed the issues and didn't make a political speech.''

But Groark, like Rowland and Democrat William E. Curry Jr., touched on topics dear to the hearts of the seniors, telling them, for example, that she would not tinker with the roughly $800 million that the state spends annually on nursing home care.

She also defended the administration's decision to fold the Department on Aging into a mega-social services agency, and urged the seniors to give the new setup a chance to work.

``I would ask that rather than be critical, work with us and try and perfect the situation so that we can deliver the very best services to our senior community because you are obviously a very valuable part of Connecticut,'' she said.

When his turn came, Curry criticized his opponents for ``pandering'' to elderly voters, saying his call for $1 billion in property tax relief is the only ``substantive and effective'' tax-cutting program on the table. Curry said it is nonsensical to think, as Rowland and Scott do, that a resurgence in the Connecticut economy would replace the hundreds of millions of dollars that would be lost if the income tax were to be repealed.

``We ought to remember this idea -- it's called supply-side economics and it's about the most discredited idea in American political and economic thought,'' Curry said.

He also emphasized his commitment to universal health coverage and said his proposal to allow small businesses, the self-employed and municipalities to participate in purchasing pools would save nearly $500 million a year in health care costs.

On crime, Curry said he would make state prisons less inviting and more austere, eliminating cigarettes, coffee, junk food, television and radio. He said he would institute an academic curriculum and make literacy a condition for parole.

Crime was the central theme of Rowland's speech, and he displayed enlarged photos of a new women's prison in Niantic to demonstrate how prisoners were being coddled in ``Club Med and Taj Mahal'' type facilities.

Rowland showed pictures of the shuffleboard and indoor basketball courts, outdoor recreation area, electronic scoreboard and building facade to dramatize his points. He accused state officials of being ``obsessed'' with the rights of prisoners while ignoring the rights of victims, and he pledged to ship convicts out of state where, he said, it would cost half what it does in Connecticut to incarcerate them.

Rowland said he would propose that anyone convicted of an act of violence against someone 60 and older be ineligible for parole.

On taxes, Rowland stuck to his plan to phase out the income tax over five years and also strongly implied that he would seek repeal of the state's inheritance tax after saying Monday that he would ``take a serious look'' at it.

The tax, which is mostly paid by wealthy residents, contributed nearly $208 million to the state treasury in 1993-94 and is expected to bring in $215 million this year.

Although the inheritance tax structure is complex -- depending on the beneficiary and the value of the estate -- tax department spokesman A.J. Janschewitz said the rates range from a low of 4.29 percent to a high of 20.2 percent on an inheritance of $1 million or more.

Rowland told the senior citizens that the loss in revenue would not be a concern because residents would choose to remain in Connecticut rather than flee to other states. As a result, he said, they would pay other taxes, though presumably they would not pay taxes on wages, interest, dividends or capital gains because Rowland wants to repeal them.

Later, Rowland's spokesman, John Chapin, said the elderly would continue to buy goods in Connecticut and thus pay more in sales taxes than they would otherwise. That spending would cause a ``ripple effect'' and help pump up the state's economy, Chapin said.